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Secretary-General António Guterres takes part in the extraordinary Virtual Leaders’ Summit of the Group of Twenty (G-20) on the COVID-19 Pandemic. (26 March 2020)

Launch of report on socio-economic impacts of COVID-19

"The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis must lead to a different economy"

About the author

António Guterres

António Guterres is the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, who took office on 1st January 2017.

31 March 2020

The world is facing an unprecedented test. And this is the moment of truth.

Hundreds of thousands of people are falling seriously ill from COVID-19, and the disease is spreading exponentially in many places,

Societies are in turmoil and economies are in a nose-dive.

The International Monetary Fund has reassessed the prospect for growth for 2020 and 2021, declaring that we have entered a recession – as bad as or worse than in 2009.

We must respond decisively, innovatively and together to suppress the spread of the virus and address the socio-economic devastation that COVID-19 is causing in all regions.

The magnitude of the response must match the scale of the crisis -- large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive, with country and international responses being guided by the World Health Organization.

And it must be multilateral, with countries showing solidarity to the most vulnerable communities and nations.

The message of the report we are issuing today is clear: shared responsibility and global solidarity in response to the impacts of COVID-19.

It is a call to action.

We must see countries not only united to beat the virus but also to tackle its profound consequences.

First, for an immediate coordinated health response to suppress transmission and end the pandemic.

A response that scales up health capacity for testing, tracing, quarantine and treatment, while keeping first responders safe, combined with measures to restrict movement and contact.

A response that delivers universal access to treatment and vaccines, when they are ready.

It is essential that developed countries immediately assist those less developed to bolster their health systems and their response capacity to stop transmission.

Otherwise we face the nightmare of the disease spreading like wildfire in the global South with millions of deaths and the prospect of the disease re-emerging where it was previously suppressed.

Let us remember that we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world.

I am particularly concerned with the African continent, and I strongly encourage the G20 to move ahead with a G20 Africa initiative as proposed at the Summit.

Second, we must tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of this crisis, with a focus on the most affected: women, older persons, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups, especially those in humanitarian and conflict settings.

We must see countries not only united to beat the virus but also to tackle its profound consequences.

That means designing fiscal and monetary policies able to support the direct provision of resources to support workers and households, the provision of health and unemployment insurance, scaled up social protection, and support to businesses to prevent bankruptcies and massive job losses.

What is needed is a large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive multilateral response amounting to at least 10 per cent of global GDP.

Developed countries can do it by themselves, and some are indeed doing so.

But we must massively increase the resources available to the developing world by expanding the capacity of the International Monetary Fund, namely through the issuance of special drawing rights, and the other international financial institutions to rapidly inject resources into the countries that need them.

Coordinated swaps among central banks can also bring liquidity to emerging economies.

Debt alleviation must be a priority – including immediate waivers on interest payments for 2020.

The United Nations system is fully mobilized, providing guidance for global efforts, supporting country responses and placing our supply chains at the world’s disposal.

And to support our efforts, the United Nations is establishing a new multi-partner Trust Fund for COVID19 Response and Recovery to support low- and middle-income countries to respond to the emergency and recover from the socio-economic shock.

UN Resident Coordinators worldwide will be the drivers of the UN response on the ground, ensuring that the wide and diverse expertise and assets of the United Nations system are used in the most efficient and effective way to support countries.

Finally, when we get past this crisis -- which we will -- we will face a choice.

We can go back to the world as it was before or deal decisively with those issues that make us all unnecessarily vulnerable to crises.

Our roadmap is the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis must lead to a different economy.

Everything we do during and after this crisis must be with a strong focus on building more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change, and the many other global challenges we face.

Virtual Press Launch

To comply with local health advisories, the United Nations Headquarters complex has remained largely closed since mid-March, with only a few hundred personnel coming to work to perform on-site functions. However, with New York City gradually moving to ease those restrictions, the UN is also gearing up for its return to normalcy in three phases.

Migrants from Haiti, Congo, Bangladesh, and Yemen, who were traveling to find a better life in the United States and Canada, now find themselves quarantined for more than 50 days in Panama. They are sheltering at an official government migration support station in the small town of La Peñita near Panama’s border with Colombia. Their movement has been stopped by border closings and fears that they are carriers of COVID-19. They come from Haiti, the Congo, Bangladesh, and Yemen.